Miami Beach mayor withdraws proposal to end lease and cut funding of theater that screened Israeli-Palestinian film
Miami Beach, Florida, Mayor Steven Meiner on Wednesday withdrew a controversial proposal to shutter a local movie theater that screened an Oscar-winning documentary about the war between Israel and Hamas.
Miami Beach, Florida, Mayor Steven Meiner on Wednesday withdrew a controversial proposal to shutter a local movie theater that screened an Oscar-winning documentary about the war between Israel and Hamas.
Mayor Steven Meiner called the film, titled “No Other Land,” a “one-sided propaganda piece” that painted the Israeli army and Jewish people “in a very negative light.” He had introduced a resolution that would end the city’s lease with the O Cinema theater and cut government grant funding.
But at a City Commission meeting Wednesday, as speakers denounced attempts to close or censor the movie theater, he announced that he was withdrawing the proposal.
He said he was deferring an alternative proposal that encouraged the theater to “showcase films that highlight a fair and balanced viewpoint of the current war between the state of Israel and the groups Hamas and Hezbollah.”
The film debuted March 7 at O Cinema, which is in the old City Hall.
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